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Tony Romo golfing under a disqualified stamp
It’s been a rough few months for Tony Romo, who found himself out of a job at CBS in the wake of his DUI arrest over the summer. That development does give him more time to chase his dreams of becoming a pro golfer, but he fell short at a qualifying tournament he was ultimately disqualified from due to multiple mistakes on the scorecard he turned in.
There are a number of professional athletes who didn’t pursue a career in professional golf but can still more than hold their own on the course. John Smoltz and Steph Curry are among the notable names who’ve secured a positive handicap, and that group also includes Tony Romo, who is widely considered the best golfer to hail from the NFL.
According to the Wisconsin State Golf Association, the retired quarterback currently boasts a +1.2 handicap (with a low of +1.6). That’s nowhere close to what guys on the PGA Tour rock, but it’s more than enough to compete in qualifiers for tournaments like the U.S. Open and other events that provide a potential pipeline to professional tours.
That includes a three-day affair Romo competed in at a course in Oklahoma earlier this month, which ended with him getting slapped with a DQ due to what transpired during the final round.
Tony Romo was disqualified from a Korn Ferry Tour prequalifier after reporting a score that was two strokes lower than what he actually shot
Romo was leaving a golf tournament in Wisconsin in July when he ended up at the center of the traffic stop that led to him being hit with the OWI charge that ultimately ended his time covering NFL games for CBS.
As Golf Digest notes, the network officially announced what was positioned as a mutual departure on October 2nd, which was the same day Romo was competing in the third and final round of a prequalifying tournament for the Korn Ferry Tour at The Club at Forest Ridge in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Romo was one of 75 golfers who were hoping to advance from the opening stage of this year’s Q-School gauntlet. He was 13 strokes behind the leaders after posting a 76 and 75 on the par-72 track, but he was still in position to advance to the next stage by finishing in the top half of the field.
However, he ultimately missed the de facto cut by three strokes after coming into the clubhouse with what his scorecard said was a 74.
Things subsequently took an interesting turn, as Brandon Rice, the playing partner who was serving as his marker, recorded a bogey 5 on the 16th (which was played on the front nine) while Romo wrote down a 4.
A pro who was following the group said he watched Romo three-putt on that hole before doing the same to record another 5 on the 17th, and while Rice’s scorecard reflected that, the ex-Cowboy jotted down a 4 for both holes.
Romo was subsequently contacted by a rules official on a phone call where he “took responsibility for the wrong card,” and while the two strokes didn’t impact the result of the tournament, he was nonetheless disqualified for submitting a score that was lower than the one he actually made.
It doesn’t seem like there’s any reason to believe Romo was purposefully lying (his group faced pressure over a slow play warning on top of the personal issues he was dealing with that day), but things certainly haven’t been going his way recently.